


After the War I Went Back to New York

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, Slow Burn, Three Days in the Infirmary (Percy Jackson), also the longest one shot ive ever written, or the slowest burn that ive ever written probably, so like nico's werewolf scratches might be a little gross sounding but it shouldn't be too bad, theres a couple more people i think but i dont remember
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 14:31:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9239102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: now that everyone else has written their three-days fics heres mine





	

**Author's Note:**

> THANK YOU FOR 1000 READS ON I'M IN HELL THIS IS THE GIFT FOR THAT  
> this is the longest individual thing ive ever written it took approx a full week to write most things (like a chapter of im in hell) take a day at most so here we go enjoy  
> also sorry for the chapter title im a nerd and bad at titles

Will barely had any time to breathe, let alone waste his time thinking about a boy. Just stepping into the infirmary after the war made his skin crawl. Everywhere he turned, there was somebody in worse and worse condition. He’d practically run himself ragged for the first whole day after the war, eventually being kicked out of the infirmary by his own siblings and forced to return to his own cabin for the night to rest. 

He made it as far as the front step up to his cabin before he looked across the green, where three figures were lingering around the front of the Hades cabin. Will felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He’d been too distracted by his work to remember the deal he’d made with a certain son of Hades, and it seemed like Nico had forgotten about it as well. Will’s heart sank as Nico, Hazel, and Frank entered the Hades cabin. He’d thought that, maybe, after seeing that Will was more than just a battlefield medic, Nico might… What, hang out with him?  _ Date _ him? There was no way.

Will continued up the steps, pushing through the door and collapsing on his bunk without even changing out of his jeans. 

 

In the morning, Will changed into a fresh scrub top before walking out onto the porch attached to the front of his cabin and leaning against the rail, enjoying the feeling of the morning sun on his skin.

As every morning, there was the soft chatter of the other campers as they made their way toward the dining pavilion for breakfast or toward their first activity of the day. Will was just about to start heading toward the infirmary when he heard a door slam across the green, and his eyes were drawn in that direction. He saw Nico and Jason, talking to each other as they walked across the lawn. Will didn’t know what made him do it, but he raised a hand in a wave and shouted, “Hey, Nico!”

His mind blanked when Nico turned in his direction and came toward him. Somehow, he managed to hold a conversation with the son of Hades, though all he could really hear was a buzzing in his ears. He’d gotten the same way the day before when Nico had appeared on the side of Halfblood Hill, the same fuzzy headed feeling while talking without processing the words, but he figured he’d managed himself pretty well. This time, too, if Nico’s tiny smile was anything to go by. 

At one point, Nico held up a finger, like  _ one minute, _  before jogging away towards Percy and Annabeth. They were far enough away that Will couldn’t _ really _ hear what was being said, but the buzzing in his ears had subsided enough to hear Nico say, “I had a crush on you,” and “You’re not my type,” before he high-fived Annabeth and turned back toward Will with a bright smile. 

Will tried not to keep his hopes up, even though his mind was moving a million miles an hour -  _ he had a crush on _ Percy?  _ A  _ boy? _ I’m a boy! Have a crush on me! _ \- besides, it was more important for Nico to be healed than for Will to find a boyfriend. 

But  _ gods _ did he want Nico to like him.

They started walking, silently, toward the infirmary. Will kept glancing toward Nico, who had his arms crossed over that  _ awful _ tropical shirt. Will wanted to say something, start some small talk or whatever, maybe comment on that hideous shirt (because he knew it couldn’t have been Nico’s first choice). Instead, what came out of his mouth was, “You look terrible, you know.” And Will wished that Zeus would strike him dead right then and there, until he heard Nico made a noise beside him.

He was... _ laughing. _  He rolled his eyes before looking up at Will and saying, “Thanks a lot.”

“I just meant that you look tired,” Will backtracked, but winced internally at his words. “Or, uh, that’s not what I meant, either--”

“Solace,” Nico cut in, laughter subsiding though he still grinned up at Will. “I’m pretty tired.”

“Okay,” Will said with a nod. He stepped up to the door of the infirmary, holding it open for Nico to walk through. “That’s good, because you’re gonna be doing a lot of resting for the next three days.”

Nico frowned when he realized what he was getting himself into: people all over the infirmary were shouting, teenagers in green scrubs ran constantly back and forth from room to room, and there was a definite smell of blood in the air.

“I don’t know how you expect me to rest in a place like this,” Nico told Will as he pulled the door shut behind him. 

“It’s a little less noisy in the back,” Will explained. “The front is for the more serious injuries, the people that had to be brought in here. The back is for more minor injuries, people like you who could bring themselves. Follow me.” He reached for Nico’s hand to pull him through the crowd, but Nico flinched back almost instantly. “Right, sorry, I forgot about the no-touching thing. Sorry.”

He began weaving through the crowd, moving like he’d been doing it his whole life, rather than closer to two years. He paused in front of a door, making sure Nico was still following close behind, before opening the door and ushering Nico through.

In the back room, still just about every bed was filled, though nobody here was screaming. There was a soft hum as a few campers talked amongst themselves, and this room seemed much more sterile than the first - no blood in sight or smell.

“Pick any bed you’d like,” Will told Nico, sweeping an arm out to the three available cots. Nico shuffled hesitantly to the first cot closest to the door - which also happened to be the furthest from anyone else in the room - and took a seat on the edge, facing the wall.

Will stood nearby, a little awkwardly, and asked, “So, uh, besides the overuse of your Underworld powers, is there anything else I should be aware of?”

Nico shrugged lightly, though he seemed hesitant to move his shoulders.

“Is there something up with your arms?” Will asked, dropping down to sit on the cot next to him, hand hovering between them like he’d been about to let his fingers graze over Nico’s shoulder before he’d forced himself to hold back.

Nico scooted away a fraction of an inch, but Will couldn’t help but feel a little hurt at the gesture. Nico reached over, carefully lifting one of his sleeves to display the terrible stitching job Reyna had done on his arms.

“What in Hades is that?” Will exclaimed, causing a few heads across the room to turn in their direction, and Nico quickly pulled the sleeve back down.

“Just a couple of scratches,” Nico told him. 

“Nico, those are  _ deep," _  Will said, keeping his voice in check this time. “And they look infected, too. Who stitched those?”

“Reyna,” Nico answered.

Will took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m gonna go get a suture kit, and when I come back, you’re going to explain to me how this happened.”

Before Nico could protest, Will was up and out of the room.

Nico brought his legs up onto the cot, drawing his knees up to his chest and picking at the loose threads in his black jeans. It had barely been a minute before Will returned with the kit, dropping it onto the cot next to where Nico sat.

“I’m probably going to need you to take your shirt off,” Will told him.

Nico let his legs drop until he was sitting criss-cross. “Do I have to?” he asked, increasingly aware of all of the other campers at the opposite end of the room. Will’s head turned in their direction before he started to move, drawing a curtain that Nico hadn’t noticed and sectioning off the room. 

“Better?” Will asked.

Nico shrugged again, just as weak as before, and started unbuttoning the front of his shirt until it slipped down his shoulders. 

Will’s breath caught in his throat at the full sight of Nico’s wounds. He couldn’t believe Nico was able to move his arms  _ at all _ without feeling excruciating pain. The wounds were like claw marks, digging into the skin starting over his shoulders and ending almost at the elbows - it almost looked as if he’d gotten an aggressive hug from lion.

“Oh my  _ gods, _ Nico,” Will breathed, lowering himself onto the cot to get a closer look. “How did this happen?  _ What _ did this to you?”

Nico muttered something that Will couldn’t hear, and repeated himself louder when Will prompted. “Lycaon.” 

_ “Lycaon?” _ Will repeated. “Like, the first werewolf, Lycaon?”

“That’s what I said,” Nico snapped, hunching his shoulders as if trying to make himself appear smaller. 

“You fought Lycaon,” Will said, voice awe-filled. He shook himself out of his amazement after a second. “I’m surprised you can move your arms, those must hurt. He didn’t bite you, right? Just scratches?”

Nico’s posture seemed to soften, and he glanced over to see the worry etched into Will’s features. “Just scratches,” Nico confirmed.

Will smile at him. “Good. We wouldn’t want you turning into a wolf in the middle of the night.”

Of course not, Nico thought. Because that would just make him _ more  _ of a freak.

“So, I’m gonna need you to stay as still as possible while I remove these old stitches - what is that, thread? - and then I’ll have to replace them. Those look, uh, kind of uncomfortable, so hopefully proper stitches will ease the pain and probably help these cuts heal a little better,” Will explained as he readied his supplies. “If you want, I have some more of that gum I gave you yesterday? It might help with the pain and it’ll keep you from passing out while I do this.”

“That dirt flavored gum?” Nico asked with a soft laugh. “No thanks.”

“I’m, uh, also going to need to touch you,” Will said, “obviously.”

“I’m not an idiot, Solace,” Nico said with a roll of his eyes. “Do what you have to do.”

Will started cutting out the old stitches - which really only seemed to be a poor attempt at keeping the skin on Nico’s arms. Some of them seemed to pull awkwardly at bits of torn flesh that didn’t quite line up, like a broken zipper that didn’t quite fit right. As Will cut away at the threads, Nico’s arms started to bleed again, though just barely.

Nico stayed completely still through the cutting, and hardly even flinched when Will closed the wounds. He wondered if Nico even really had any feeling in his arms anymore. Honestly, he’d be surprised if he did. In a little over two hours, Will had both arms stitched and bandaged, and he was  _ starving. _ He was sure Nico had to be, as well.

“All done,” Will told him after tying the last bandage. “I’m gonna run by the dining pavilion and get some breakfast. Do you want me to bring something back for you.”

Nico tried for a shrug once more, though he couldn’t quite seem to move his arms like that anymore. “I don’t care,” he said instead.

Will frowned at that. “I’ll bring you something. You don’t have any food allergies, do you?”

Nico shook his head, slowly and carefully raising his shirt back over his shoulders.

“I’ll get you a new shirt on my way back, too,” Will offered. “That one looks a little rough. I’ll be back soon.”

Nico had a  _ whatever _ on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it, wanting to keep that soft smile on Will’s lips. He felt like if he said anything, opened his mouth, even, that smile might fade away.

So Will left, and Nico kicked off his shoes, laying back on the cot. As soon as his shoulders felt even the slightest pressure, though, he felt like Lycaon was ripping his claws through his skin once again. He turned onto his side, feeling the same pressure, until he laid down flat on his stomach, hands drawn up to rest on the pillow on either side of his head. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but it kept the pressure off his injuries.

After the last two weeks or so of his life, any position half as comfortable as the one he was in now was enough to pass out instantly, which was exactly what he did.

 

Will returned to the infirmary with a brand new camp t-shirt and a plate of food in his hands. He wasn’t sure what Nico liked, so Will got him a pancake and a scoop of scrambled eggs, plus a handful of assorted fruits, because he knew Nico needed to get his energy up soon if he ever wanted to get back to normal. 

He lifted the plate high over the heads of the other campers as he made his way to the back room - one of the perks of being one of the tallest children of Apollo - though he froze as soon as he saw Nico asleep on the cot. 

Will set the plate of food and the camp t-shirt off to the side on a little desk that sat against the wall - what the Apollo kids jokingly called the Nurse’s Station - before cautiously heading to Nico’s bedside. He knelt down, seeing Nico’s eyes closed and his breathing steady. Will brushed the hair out of Nico’s eyes, telling himself that it was to see if he could get Nico to wake up, when he really just wanted to see how soft his hair was (not at all and kind of greasy, which was to be expected, really).

Will frowned, sitting back on his heels and watched Nico sleep for a moment, until somebody called from the other side of the curtain, “Hey, Will, is this food for somebody or can I have it?”

He rose, not wanting to shout directly in Nico’s sleeping face, and said, “Sure, go ahead,” as he came out from behind the curtain. He was about to take a seat at the Nurse’s Station, to keep on eye on everyone (Nico) or something, when the door opened and Kayla asked for his help.

 

For the rest of the day, whenever Will had a free second, he would run to the back room to see if Nico was finally awake, but he looked exactly the same every time Will reappeared, and every time, Will would be dragged back into the front room to heal somebody else.

Sometimes, it seemed like Will would just  _ stop, _  like he’d forget what he was doing or like his robot-programming had crashed. Whenever it happened, one of his siblings (usually Austin) would wave a hand in front of his face or snap a finger in his ear or even punch him in the arm to get him to snap out of it. Immediately, Will would shout, “Sorry!” and get right back to whatever he was doing.

After dinner at some point, Austin told Kayla, “Take a break and take Will with you, see what’s up with him.” So Kayla had dragged Will into the supply closet, telling him that she was going to take stock and Will was going to talk about his feelings. He didn’t look happy about it, but agreed anyway. 

“You weren’t around for the Titan War, were you?” Will asked softly as he sat on the ground against the back wall of the supply closet. Kayla had a pad of paper and a pencil in her hands, already writing up a list of supplies they would need soon. Outside the door, Will could still hear the dull roar of the front room, and couldn’t help but think about what might be happening in the back, if maybe someone had woken up yet.

“Before my time,” Kayla said, keeping her eyes on the shelves. “I started here a few months after. What’s that got to do with you today? That’s, like, ancient times.”

“It’s the first time I ever remember seeing Nico,” Will answered. He sat with his legs criss-cross, hands resting on his ankles, head tipped back as he smiled up at the ceiling. “He didn’t show up ‘til close to the end of the battle, because he was in the Underworld convincing his father to help us fight. Can you believe that? He was, like, thirteen and he got the Lord of the Dead to help us win a war. We would’ve lost without them!

“I remember watching him summon an army of zombies. It was one of the  _ coolest  _ things I’ve ever seen, like, a hundred skeletons just rising out of the ground. He looked so cool, and it looked so  _ effortless, _  like at that point, I still almost passed out if I had to heal more than a broken bone. Annabeth was hurt pretty bad in the fight. I healed her as well as I could, but as soon as I was finished I slept until the fighting started up again the next night.”

“So you’re telling me that having your crush in the infirmary is too distracting for you?” Kayla asked, glancing over her shoulder to see her brother’s reaction.

“That’s not what I--” Will’s cheeks started growing pink. “I didn’t say that!”

“Which part? That he’s a distraction or that he’s your crush?”

“Neither!” Will cried. “Or, uh, both? I never said  _ either _ of those things.”

“So just to clarify,” Kayla started, finally turning herself around to stare at her brother dead-on. “You’re saying that Nico di Angelo, son of Hades and savior of the planet twice over is neither a distraction  _ or _ your crush.”

Will hated lying,  _ especially  _ to family. “That’s right,” he said. They could always see through his lies. He didn’t know why he ever even bothered.

“Gods, Will, get your boy to teach you how to lie when he wakes up,” Kayla laughed.

“Shut up!”

The next morning, when Will went to check on Nico, he still wasn’t awake. He didn’t even look like he’d moved at all, and Will was pretty sure that laying in his position for so long was going to give him neck problems, but at this point, he wasn’t sure that anything would wake him up.

Thankfully, by this time, the front room was finally starting to calm down, which meant that Will could freak out to one of his siblings without feeling guilty about taking them away from a patient. 

“Kayla, what if he doesn’t wake up?” Will asked, eyes locked on the door to the back room.

“He’s gonna wake up, Will,” Kayla assured him. “Try giving him a kiss, you two can be, like, the first gay couple of a fairytale. The first ever gay Disney princes! Sell your story to Disney, they’ll love it.”

“You’re not helping, Kayla!” Will whined. 

“What’s the problem?” Austin asked as he approached.

“Nico still hasn’t woken up yet,” Will answered with a pout.

“And Will’s afraid that if he doesn’t wake up, he’ll never realize that Will’s in love with him, or something,” Kayla added.

“Oh my gods,” Will said, burying his face in his hands.

 

Will sat at the Nurse’s Station in the back room, chin rested on his crossed arms on the desk and he gazed across the room at Nico’s still sleeping form. The last patient had checked out of the back room around lunch that day, besides Nico, of course. 

The door opened, but Will didn’t look over. He felt a hand start brushing its fingers through his hair.

“You know that thing that people say sometimes,” he said, eyes unmoving, still fixed on Nico, “like, if the person you like gets a bad haircut but they still look cute to you, then it’s more than a crush, or whatever. Do you think that goes for clothes, too? ‘Cause that’s kind of how I feel about Nico in that ugly shirt.”

There was silence for a moment before Lou Ellen said, “Geez, I knew you liked the kid, but that was a little more than I needed to know. Please, don’t start sharing your dreams with me, okay?”

Will sat up so quickly, he almost knocked his stool over. “I thought you were Kayla!”

“I know you’re gay, Will, but not all girls are the same,” Lou scolded jokingly. 

“You know I don’t think that,” Will huffed, falling back onto the desk.

“So, I hear you’re really caught up on this loser, huh?”

“He’s not a loser!” Will defended. “And where’d you hear that anyway? Don’t tell me Kayla’s been telling everyone behind my back.”

“Nope, just you and your mopey body language,” Lou said. 

“I’m not mopey,” Will grumbled. “I don’t even care if he likes me or not, I just want him to wake up. I want him to be  _ okay _ , and to stay at camp where’s he’s safe. I want him to see that he’s got  _ friends _ here, people that care about him.”

“And what if he wants to be your friend, but nothing else?” Lou asked. “I’ve heard the way you talk about him, Will, are you sure you’re  _ really _ okay with him being here, but not being with you?”

“I’ve dealt with rejection before, Lou, I can do it again,” Will told her, though, again, he wasn’t sure why he bothered trying to lie. 

Later that night, when Will fell asleep at the Nurse’s Station, nobody bothered waking him up and forcing him to his cabin - they knew he wouldn’t leave anyway.

 

Nico woke up dizzy, disoriented, and still in quite a bit of pain though it was nowhere near as bad as some of the things he’d handled before. He sat up, tried cracking the crick out of his neck to no avail, and looked around the room. The curtain was still drawn at his bedside, though there was no sound coming from behind it, and when he swept it aside, he appeared to be the only one in the room.

Well. The only one besides whoever happened to be sleeping at that desk across the room from him. 

At the moment, Nico didn’t quite trust his legs to carry him the few steps it would take to reach the desk - they probably weren’t nearly as awake as the rest of him - and a quick scan of his surroundings showed that there wasn’t much he could throw in that direction to possibly wake the stranger up. He noticed a glass of water sitting on a small table pressed into the corner of the room, a nightstand maybe, and he only took a moment to consider the chances that that glass had been sitting there longer than he had, before he remembered that he’d drank liquid fire in Tartarus and nothing could be worse than that. So he’d drank about half of the glass when he remembered his shoes, which had gotten kicked just under the edge of the cot. Two shoes, which meant two tries. 

The first shoe hit laces-first to the wall behind the sleeping person, and the sound was so soft it couldn’t have woken anybody. The second shoe landed sole-down on top of the desk, right next to the person’s head, though they still didn’t wake. Nico groaned (which came out as more of a sigh. The water hadn’t done much to wet his dry throat) and considered chugging the last of the water and throwing the glass, but figured that could cause quite a bit of damage and decided against it. 

As Nico continued searching for throwable objects, the person on the desk finally began to stir, shoulders twitching first before they lifted their head, eyes blinking open and staring incredulously at the sneaker in front of him. His gaze travelled over the top of the shoe, landing on an up-and-awake Nico, glaring downward at his cot. 

“Nico?” Will called over, and Nico’s head popped up. Will stood so abruptly that the desk was almost knocked over. “Oh my gods, you’re finally awake!” He rushed to Nico’s bedside, dropping onto the edge of the cot. “How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Food, water?”

“Water?” Nico croaked, wincing at the sound of his own voice. 

Will nodded, almost frantically. “Yeah, okay, I’ll get that for you right now.” He stood, taking the glass from Nico’s nightstand and stepping through the door into the front room, and returned in about a minute with a full glass.

“Anything else?” Will asked, eyes dropping to Nico’s shoulders. “I’ll need to change those bandages. Would you rather I do that before or after breakfast?”

“Now,” Nico told him before gulping down another half a glass of water. He slammed the glass down on the nightstand like he’d just taken a shot before Will began unwrapping the bandages, stating that he wanted to give the wounds a chance to breathe before wrapping them up again, and left the room when he’d finished to go gather clean bandages. 

When he returned, fresh bandages in hand, he sat down and got right to work. “As soon as I’m done here, I’ll go get you some breakfast. You’re probably starving, considering you passed out  _ oh so rudely _ before I brought you food last time,” Will joked, smiling up at Nico to make sure the other boy knew he was kidding, but Nico’s eyes were trained on the nightstand, glaring as if he could somehow make his glass of water explode with the power of his mind. From what Will heard from Coach Hedge, he wouldn’t be surprised if Nico could, except then he’d pass out for another few days probably. 

He also noticed a faint dusting of pink high up on Nico’s cheekbones. Was he...embarrassed, or something?

Will hurried to finish up the wrapping of the bandages. “Uh, is there anything specific you want for breakfast? Or should I just guess?”

“I don’t care,” Nico told him, voice barely any less raspy than before. 

They sat in silence for a few moments until Will finished tying off the last bandage and rose from the bed. “Alright, I’ll be back soon. I brought a t-shirt for you, last time, if you want it. It’s on that desk over there. Um, try not to fall asleep again before I get back,” Will ended lamely, laughing kind of nervously before he forced himself to leave the room.

Nico wanted to lay down, throw himself back dramatically on the cot, but he knew it would hurt his shoulders, and he also wasn’t sure that the crappy canvas or whatever the bed was made out of wouldn’t tear if he tried it. 

So, instead, he positioned himself so that he was sitting against the headboard, leaning forward enough that the scratches weren’t irritated, and hugged his knees up to his chest. He hadn’t realized that he’d been rude by falling asleep, and kind of wished Will hadn’t pointed it out to him. Did Will not want him there? Of course not, he’d seen what Nico could do. He’d been there, watching as Nico allowed Octavian to kill himself in front of them and did nothing to stop it. Will probably thought Nico was some kind of  _ monster _ and would be glad to see Nico anywhere but there. He was probably just waiting until Nico was healthy enough to leave before kicking him out, because he wouldn’t want to ruin his reputation as the bright, sunshiney medic, or whatever.

Which...sucked, honestly. Because Nico didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay at camp, and didn’t even mind being stuck in the infirmary for a little while, if it meant that Will tolerated him for some time. Having Will around for a little while before being forcibly removed from his life was better than shutting him out from the start, right? This way, Nico could get to see what he was missing out on, and maybe then he’d realize that he was still just as fine on his own as he ever was.

Except, recently? He was starting to feel the opposite.

 

Will returned with two plates of food, one for Nico and one for himself (he wasn’t about to leave Nico completely alone and probably starving as Will took his time enjoying his breakfast), and noticed that Nico had changed into the camp shirt Will had brought him.

Will smiled at him when he entered the room. “That’s much better than that tropical whatever you were wearing before,” Will told him, handing Nico his plate before sitting down on the foot of Nico’s bed. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I tried to get a little bit of everything.”

“This is fine,” Nico said, picking up a little strawberry with his fingers and popping it in his mouth. “Thanks.”

They ate quietly for a few moments before Will said, “So, we’ve basically got just about everybody fixed up from the war, so it’s going to be a lot quieter around here from now on.” Nico seemed to deflate, slightly, but Will didn’t notice as he rolled his eyes while he continued to speak, “Until somebody messes with the settings on the lava wall again, of course.”

“Okay,” Nico said, sounding a little bit like Will had just sent him to his room without dinner. 

Will frowned. “That means that, well, I’ll have some more free time? And I’d be happy to keep you company here, if you want.”

Nico looked up from his plate suspiciously. “You would?”

Will shrugged, trying not to seem too desperate. “Yeah, we’ve got a board game cupboard here, and there’s no way you’ve played all of them before. And I figure it’ll probably be kind of boring for you to just sit here alone while you wait for your arms to heal.” Will cracked a smile, hoping that, since Nico was looking at him this time, he might catch the joking tone of Will’s voice when he said: “And somebody’s gotta be around to make sure you aren’t doing any Underworld-y stuff when you’re not supposed to.”

Nico ducked his head with the faintest of smiles on his lips, and Will had never been more proud of himself. 

“So? What d’you say?” Will asked, leaning forward slightly. “We’ve got video games, too. I don’t know if you’ve gotten a chance to check those out yet, what with your busy schedule, but we’ve got one of those TVs that wheels out on a cart so we can bring it right over here.”

Nico kept his head tipped down, but Will could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “You kids these days, with your newfangled technology.”

 

He kicked Will’s butt at Mario Kart. Will didn’t understand how. Sure, it was an easy game, but Will had played this game a  _ thousand _ times and had barely ever been beaten. It wasn’t until Nico flashed him a smug grin and said, “I was trapped in an arcade for  _ seventy years _ , Sunshine, I know my way around a Mario game.”

Will didn’t allow himself to underestimate Nico anymore (not that he really ever had, except for this one time). He tried not to let himself get caught up on the nickname, instead demanding, “Rematch, Deathboy.” 

They raced another four tracks, and while it was closer, Nico won again. Will flopped back onto the cot - which was kind of painful, since it wasn’t that big and was lined with metal bars which Will landed on - and groaned. “Nobody beats me at this game,” Will said with a pout.

“Looks like you’ve finally found your match, then,” Nico replied, grinning. “You’re gonna have a hard time beating me at anything that was made more than five years ago.”

“That’s a shame,” Will said, voice monotone, “since everything we have here was made before 2005.” He narrowed his eyes at Nico. “Guess I’ll just have to up my game.”

Nico laughed, ducking his head, and Will felt something like an electric shock going up his spine. He sat up quickly, trying to get a closer look at Nico’s  _ beautiful  _ smile, when a blush rose up on Nico’s  _ dimpled _ cheeks and his pulled his face away from Will’s. “Solace,” Nico said cautiously to get Will’s attention.

“Sorry!” Will nearly shouted, leaning away. “I’m sorry, just-- You-- You have dimples.”

Nico reached up and rubbed at his cheek with a frown, as if he could just wipe them away. “Do I?”

“You didn’t know?”

Nico shook his head. “I’m not even sure I know what dimples are.”

“They’re like little dents in your cheeks,” Will tried to explain. “When you smile, they just kind of, show up, I guess.” He pointed his fingers to his own cheeks and smiled. “Right here.”

Nico squinted, eyes scanning Will’s cheeks. “You don’t have any little dents.”

Will rolled his eyes. “Because I don’t have dimples. I was just showing you where they are. Here, let me go get a mirror.” He hopped off the cot, rushing into the front room and returning a moment later with a tiny handheld mirror. He handed the mirror to Nico as he retook his seat.

Nico held up the mirror, frowning at his reflection.

“You have to  _ smile _ to see them,” Will reminded him.

Nico rolled his eyes. “Not everyone’s a smiling ball of sunshine all the time.”

“Aw, you think I’m a ball of sunshine?” Will teased.

“I think you’re too happy,” Nico told him, but Will kept smiling. Soon enough, Nico was smiling, too.

“There!” Will cried, poking gently at Nico’s cheek.

“I can’t see if your hand’s in the way, stupid,” he replied, though his smile fell away as soon as he saw the dimple. He scrunched up his nose. “What’s so great about that?”

Will shrugged, eyes darting away. “I think they’re kinda cute,” he muttered, and Nico felt his face heating up. He noticed Will’s cheeks turning a light pink under his dusting of freckles - if they were going to be talking cute facial attributes, those would be at the top of Nico’s list.

“I guess they are,” Nico replied quietly.

 

Shortly after that, Will had been called away as an injured camper had just arrived at the infirmary - something about a mishap in the arena and a few more campers were on their way. Will had started treating the first camper immediately, but when they were settled, so were just about all of the rest.

When he started to retreat once again to the back room, Kayla blocked his path. “You need some sun, you’re looking a little tired.”

“I’m fine,” Will told her, head tilting in confusion.

“You haven’t left here all day, besides breakfast,” Kayla reminded him. “You have friends outside this building, go hang out with them.” She frowned at her brother. “But really, you get kinda mellow when you don’t have enough sun, and it’s weird when you get mellow.”

“Isn’t being mellow a good thing?”

“Not with you. You’re too calm, I’m not used to it.” Kayla started to move past him, clapping him on the shoulder as she did. “Anyway, go get some vitamin D! It’s good for you.”

“Says the ginger that makes her own,” Will called after her, but made his way out of the building anyway.

He decided to find a soft patch of grass and lay down for awhile, pulling out his secret mp3 player and zoning out to an audio book. He wasn’t able to listen very far into it by the time Cecil and Lou Ellen found him, standing over him in the direct line of the sun.

Cecil dropped onto the ground next to him, tugging out one of Will’s earbuds and popping it into his own ear. “What’re you listening to, man?”

“An audio book about serial killers,” Will told him calmly, sighing peacefully when Lou stepped out of his light. 

“What in Hades is wrong with you, dude?” Cecil asked, ripping out his earbud and tossing it at Will’s face. It bounced painlessly against his nose.

Will shrugged. “It’s interesting.”

“You know what else is interesting?” Lou asked, and Will was immediately suspicious of the tone of her voice. “The major crush Will has on di Angelo.”

Will groaned, covering his face with his hands.

Cecil frowned, glancing between the two of them as Lou laughed at Will, a look of confusion on his face. After a moment, he smiled with an  _ ah _ sound. “I get it, you’re trying to make fun of Will about something to do with relationships. See, Lou, I just don’t care enough about anyone’s love life to make fun of them for it.”

“How else am I supposed to make fun of him?” Lou asked.

“There’s gotta be plenty of reasons, just pick one.”

“Thanks, man,” Will muttered, pausing his audio book and removing his other earbud. He wound the cord of his headphones around the mp3 player as he spoke. “Did you know that Nico has dimples? I never noticed before.”

Lou Ellen groaned, and Cecil started booing him loudly.

“That’s gross, Will,” Lou started, “we don’t wanna know about your weird kinks and fetishes or whatever you’re about to get into.”

“No! I wasn’t going to--”

“What’s the difference?” Cecil asked. “Between a kink and a fetish?”

Lou frowned in thought. “I think it’s--”

Will launched up onto his feet. “Why do I even speak to the two of you, oh my gods. I’m going back inside.”

They both waved at him, bright, innocent smiles on their faces. “By Will,” Cecil called. 

“Have fun with your boy!” Lou told him, wiggling her eyebrows and winking at him.

 

Will knocked on the wall next to Nico’s cot, drawing the other boy’s attention away from the book he was reading.

“What’s that?” Will asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. Nico sat up, holding out the cover of the book for Will to see: “To Kill a Mockingbird?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I’ve been told that extensive knowledge of video games isn’t enough to consider myself  _ caught up _ with modern times.” He shrugged, turning the book back towards himself. “It’s not bad, but I’ve never been a big fan of reading.” Nico dropped the book onto the cot beside him and looked up at Will. “What’s up?”

“It’s, uh, your last day of required medical care,” Will told him, staring at his shoe as he scuffed the toe on the floorboards.

“Already?” Nico asked, tipping his head to the side. Will couldn’t tell if he sounded excited or not. He probably was, why would anyone want to be stuck in the infirmary when there wasn’t  _ really _ anything wrong with them?

Will nodded, trying to bring himself to smile. “You did sleep a lot in the beginning, you know. You’re free to go in the morning.”

“Okay,” Nico responded quietly.

Will started to turn away, trying to think of any reason to stay a little bit longer, to talk to Nico a little bit more. “Or, um--”

“What?” Nico asked, eyes wide and...hopeful? Was he really that desperate to get out of the infirmary?

“There’s a campfire tonight, and usually we try to make sure everyone gets a chance to go, even if they’re injured,” Will rambled. “I was thinking, if you want, maybe, you could come to the campfire with me and I guess I could let you sleep in your own cabin tonight, since,  _ really, _ you’re perfectly healthy and--”

“Campfire?” Nico cut in, and Will frowned. Of course Nico wouldn’t want to go to the campfire with him, why would he? “That sounds okay, I guess.”

“Really?” Will asked, immediately following with, “Cool! Okay, great! I’ll, uh, I’ve got a couple of things to do before then, but I’ll come back here to get you before it starts.” He started backing up toward the door. “See you in a little while,” he said, and practically ran out of the infirmary.

To be honest, Will didn’t  _ actually _ have anything to do, but seeing as he’d just basically  _ asked Nico on a date, _ he needed to get advice from somebody who’d actually dated someone before. Who could he talk to that had real experience dating someone, and who wouldn’t make fun of him for being hopelessly single?

He started for the Aphrodite cabin.

There were a few campers hanging around, including Mitchell, Lacy, and a few others that Will had never gotten the chance to learn the names of, but there was only one person there that Will had much intention of speaking to.

The Aphrodite cabin had an open-door policy between the hours of 10am to 8pm, but don’t expect anyone to be here during meal times, said the sign on the door, so Will walked into the cabin, only knocking on the door once it was closed behind him to gain the cabin’s attention. 

“Hi, Will,” Lacy greeted, smiling up at him from where she was painting her nails. “What’s up?”

“I need some help,” Will said, which was probably pretty obvious, since he’d never been there simply to hang out before.

Mitchell leaned out of his bunk with a lazy grin. “Oh, really?” he drawled.

Drew began walking in Will’s direction, smacking Mitchell on the back of the head as she passed by. She took one of Will’s hands in both of her own and asked, “What do you need, sweetheart?”

“I think I just asked Nico on a date?” Will told her.

Drew scrunched up her nose. “Broody Boy? You might want to talk to Piper about him, hun, she’s the only one here that’s ever spent much time around him.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“Her bed’s back in the corner,” Drew told him, pointing to the far side of the cabin. “She’s probably listening to music or something and didn’t hear you come in.”

“Thanks, Drew,” Will said, starting further into the cabin. He noticed Mitchell wink at him as he walked past, though Drew was following close behind and flicked Mitchell in the forehead.

“Honestly, Mitch, you’ve got your own boy to worry about,” Drew said. “Leave this one alone.”

Will didn’t have time to consider who “Mitchell’s boy” could’ve been before he was knocking on the wall next to Piper’s bed. She was laying on her stomach, reading a book with headphones in when she noticed Will and sat up quickly, ripping the headphones out of her ears. “Hey, Will, what’s going on?”

“I could use your help with something,” Will told her, rubbing nervously at his arm.

Piper moved to sit against the headboard of her bed, motioning for Will to sit across from her. “What do you need?”

Will toed off his shoes before sitting down, crossing his legs and resting his hands over his ankles. “I think I asked Nico on a date, but I’m not sure. And if I did, I don’t think  _ he _ thinks it’s a date. I’ve never  _ been _ on a date before, and he probably hasn’t either, and I don’t know what I’m  _ doing." _

“That’s okay, Will,” Piper told him, covering one of his hands with one of hers. “Most people don’t know what they’re doing on a first date. Sometimes even the second or third. I, for one, never actually had a first date, but was given false memories of one. And in those false memories? I was _ nervous." _

Will laughed. “I forgot how messed up your relationship was.”

“I do, too, sometimes,” Piper said with a smile. “But you’ve got nothing to be worried about. What are you doing for your date?”

“I asked him to the campfire tonight,” Will answered. “But I think he might’ve only agreed because I told him he could sleep in his own cabin afterwards instead of going back to the infirmary.”

Piper paused for a second. “I have a feeling that Nico would rather be anywhere else  _ but  _ the campfire, even in the infirmary for another night.”

Will’s eyes widened. “Does that mean I shouldn’t make him go? Gods, he’s gonna hate me if I make him sit through something he doesn’t like.”

Pipe laughed. “That’s not what I’m saying. I mean that, if he’s  _ choosing  _ to go with you to something he doesn’t like, then he probably likes you more than he dislikes the campfire.”

“Are you sure?” Piper nodded. “But Piper, I’m only, like, fifty percent sure he even  _ likes  _ boys, what if he doesn’t--”

“Will,” Piper cut in, leaning forward slightly. “Listen to me very closely. Nico’s  _ gay _ .”

Will frowned. “How do you  _ know--" _

“I lived on the same boat as him and Percy Jackson for an amount of time. He’s over Percy, and he’s  _ gay." _

Will took a breath. “How do I get him to like me?”

“That’s gonna be a lot of trial and error,” Piper answered, leaning back. “My best advice would be to make him smile, make him laugh, spend time with him. Trust is a big deal with him, so let him know that he can trust you.” Will still looked pretty freaked out, though probably a little less so than when he’d first arrived. “Anything else?” Piper asked. Will shook his head. “Don’t be afraid to sit by me and Jason if you think it’ll be weird or something. Nico might feel a little more at-ease if he’s close to his friends.”

Will nodded. “Right. Of course. Thanks, Piper.”

“No problem, happy to help,” she told him, smiling. “Now, he’s probably bored out of his mind in there, go be with your boy.”

“Why does everyone keep calling him  _ my  _ boy?” Will muttered as he stood, slipping on his shoes.

“I heard it’s going to be kind of cold tonight, too,” Piper continued as if Will hadn’t said anything. “If you’re not gonna be sitting close to the fire, I would bring a jacket.”

“Thanks, Piper,” Will said again, turning away.

“You got this, Will!” Piper called after him.

As Will left the cabin, he heard Mitchell say, “I’m just saying, we could  _ pretend _ to date, and make both Nico  _ and _ Connor jealous.”

Will had a feeling that plan wouldn’t have gone over very well.

Nico was pretty bored. He’d finished the book he was given, and he still couldn’t lay comfortably on his back, and he was pretty sure there wasn’t a single other person in the infirmary, not even any Apollo campers. Did they all forget he was there?

He got up from the cot and started to wander around the back room. Will had taken the TV and all the video games back to the front room, though Nico wasn’t exactly sure where, and he didn’t want to get caught snooping around in places he shouldn’t be. 

Except for maybe that desk that Will was always sitting at. What had he called it? The Nurse’s Station?

Nico dropped himself down onto the stool behind the desk, eyes scanning over the piles of papers sitting in front of him. One of them had his name written at the top - it looked like a patient form. Most of the information at the top hadn’t been filled in, such as his birthday, his age, his weight and height, though to be fair, Nico didn’t know most of that information, either. The part of the page that actually was filled out was just as boring as Nico’s day had been so far: Day 1, slept for the entire day; Day 2, woke up after approx. 36 hours. Werewolf scratches stitched and bandaged; Day 3, bandages changed, healing slowly.

Nico set the page back down on the desk. He kept looking around, opening a few of the drawers, most of which held pencils and clipboards, though Nico also found a small, black rectangle with a piece of masking tape on it that said  _ Will’s. Don’t touch. _

There were a few buttons on the rectangle and a cord plugged into one side. Nico hit one of the buttons and the screen lit up, displaying the words  _ America’s Five Most Infamous Serial Killers. _  He heard a tinny sound coming from the end of the cord and held it up to his ear, hearing a voice that sounded as if it were narrating a story - a pretty bloody story, at that. Is this what Will listened to in his spare time? Did he find serial killers  _interesting?_ Did that mean that Will  _wasn't_ afraid of Nico?

Nico heard a sound coming from the front room and stuffed the rectangle back into the desk, shutting the drawer and rushing back over to his bed just as the door started to open. However, instead of an Apollo camper like Nico had expected, he saw Coach Hedge with a small bundle held carefully in his arms.

“Coach?” Nico said, feeling his pounding heart starting to slow. “What’re you doing here?”

“I want you to meet my boy!” Coach said in the quietest voice Nico had ever heard him use. “I had a heck of a time tracking you down, kid. I thought you might’ve gone back to the Underworld already, but I wanted to catch you before you left.” He held out the bundle in his arms. “This is Chuck!”

Nico stared down at the baby satyr before him, unsure of why Hedge was still holding him out toward Nico.

“Well? Don’t you want to hold him?”

“I don’t, uh--”

“You can do it!” Hedge insisted, stepping even closer. “Just hold your arms out, there you go!” He placed Chuck in Nico’s arms, moving back when he was sure his son was safe. “You’re a natural!”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Nico muttered, closely watching the sleeping baby, terrified something might happen to him if he glanced away for even a second. “He’s very small.”

“You never seen an infant before, kid?” Hedge joked. “You look like you’re afraid of him! He’s not going to bite you.”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” Nico said, shooting Hedge a quick glare before dropping his eyes back to the baby satyr.

Hedge laughed. “Of course not, kid. You’re the toughest demigod I’ve ever seen, honest.”

Nico opened his mouth, about to ask whether or not Hedge was being sarcastic, when the door opened. Will stood in the doorway, looking surprised to see that Nico was not alone, though he barely had time for his reaction to change before Hedge had wrapped him up in a hug. 

“Solace!” Hedge cried. “Good to see you, kid! Thanks again for taking care of Mellie while I was gone. You and Clarisse, I don’t know what I would’ve done without you kids.”

“No problem, Coach,” Will replied, sounding like he couldn’t breathe very well.

Hedge released him, turning back to face his son. 

“I didn’t know you were good with kids, Nico,” Will said, dropping down onto the edge of the cot and placing something on the bed beside him, out of Nico’s line of sight.

Nico rolled his eyes. “I’m not. Chuck just hasn’t realized who he’s dealing with yet.”

Will laughed, just loud enough to wake a sleeping satyr.

As soon as Chuck’s eyes were open, he started crying.

“Ah! Coach, what do I do?” Nico asked frantically, eyes darting between the two satyrs. 

Hedge chuckled. “Not afraid of anything, huh? Don’t worry kid, he’s probably just hungry.” He stepped closer, scooping his son out of Nico’s arms and turned away. “I’d better go get him some grub. You’d better come find me to say goodbye before you leave, kid,” Hedge said before he left the room.

Will’s gaze landed on him. “You’re leaving?”

“No!” Nico said quickly. “No, Hedge thinks I am, and I don’t know why. He talks too much and didn’t give me a chance to tell him otherwise.”

Will narrowed his eyes. “Good. Just because you’ll be cleared to leave the infirmary soon, doesn’t mean you’re cleared for Underworld magic.”

“I’m not leaving,” Nico said again.

“I believe you,” Will told him. “But I also think I might know you well enough to guess that, while you may spend most of your time here in the future, you’re probably going to sneak out every once in a while.  _ After _ you’ve been cleared for Underworld magic.”

“Quit calling it magic,” Nico said, neither confirming or denying Will’s thoughts.

“And I noticed you don’t have that jacket you used to wear all the time.”

_ What does that have to do with anything? _ Nico thought. “No, I don’t. It got ripped up by the werewolves.”

Will held up a black leather jacket, handing it to Nico without a word.

“What is this?” Nico asked.

“A leather jacket,” Will said, rolling his eyes.

“I know that, idiot,” Nico said, leaning forward to shove at Will’s shoulder. “I meant  _ why." _

Will smiled. “Then you should’ve  _ said _ that. It was mine, but it hasn’t fit for a while and I never wanted to get rid of it.” He shrugged. “It’s probably not as warm as your old jacket, but it’s better than nothing.”

Nico frowned. “But if you want to keep it--”

“I’m not getting any use out of it,” Will told him. “Try it on. If you don’t like it, I’ll take it back. Otherwise, keep it. It’s yours.”

“I have a hard time believing a ball of sunshine like you ever wore black leather,” Nico said as he shrugged the jacket on other his injured shoulders.

“We all had our emo phases,” Will said, reaching forward to help when he noticed Nico was in a bit of pain. “I just figured you haven’t grown out of yours yet.”

Nico narrowed his eyes. “I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I feel like it was a bit of an insult.”

Will grinned. “Do you like the jacket or not, Deathboy?”

“I like it better than that nickname.”

“Good,” Will said. “It looks good on you, it’s cute.”

He watched as Nico’s cheeks grew pink, head ducking as he tucked his hands into the slightly-too-long sleeves. “Yeah?”

Will felt like the air was knocked out of his lungs, but his smile brightened. “Yeah.”

 

Will brought dinner to the infirmary for the two of them before running back to his cabin to change his clothes for the campfire. When he returned to the infirmary in tennis shoes, skinny jeans, and a flannel shirt over his camp t-shirt, Nico blushed as soon as he laid eyes on Will. 

“We’ll have to leave soon if we want seats closer to the fire,” Will said, rubbing his arm awkwardly (he’d been practically forced into his outfit by Kayla and Austin when they’d found out about Will’s possibly-a-date). “I usually sit down in the front, but if you don’t want to, we don’t have to.”

“I don’t mind,” Nico said.

Will smiled. “Cool, okay.” He sat down on the edge of the cot, biting nervously at his lip. “There’s something I want to talk to you about first, a-and after I say this, if you don’t want to go to the campfire with me after I say this, then I’ll understand, but I-- I have to say this.”

Nico felt like he’d been hit in the stomach with a rock. He brought his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his shins. “Okay.”

Will took a breath. “I like you,” he said, eyes locked on the floor. “I-I mean, I have a crush on you. Since the Battle of Manhattan. I really like you, and I understand if you don’t like me back, or if you don’t want to go to the campfire with me, or if you want to _leave camp_ _completely,_  but _please_ don’t leave. If you don’t want anything to do with me anymore, then I’ll leave you alone, but camp is a safe place, and I want you to be safe, so please don’t leave.”

There was silence in the infirmary for a long moment.

“I don’t want to leave,” Nico said quietly. “A-and I still want to go to the campfire. With you.”

“You do?” Will asked, glancing up from his shoes.

“I...I had a dream, when we were bringing back the Parthenos,” Nico started, picking at a hole in the knee of his jeans, “and I think it was of a head counselor’s meeting. I remember seeing you there, a-and then I couldn’t get you out of my head. I was thinking about you almost the entire time we were trying to get back here, and then you were the first person I saw when I got back to camp.” He met Will’s eyes. “I wouldn’t have wanted to see anyone else.”

“Really?” 

Nico’s eyes dropped again. “B-but I don’t think you understand what you’re getting into. I’m a  _ freak, _  Will, and you should know that by now. I’m surprised you don’t think I’m a monster because of how I let Octavian kill himself.”

Will launched himself closer, resting his hands on the tops of Nico’s feet. “You’re not a freak! I don’t care about Octavian. If he couldn’t see that he was about to kill himself, then he deserved to die, and nothing either of us did could have stopped him. I’ve watched you raise dozens of armies of zombies straight out of the ground. You’re  _ not _ a monster. You’re--” Will knocked his forehead against Nico’s. “Gods, I think you’re the coolest person I’ve ever met.”

Nico met Will’s gaze. “You do?”

Will nodded. “Yeah.”

“I like you, too.”

“I’m glad,” Will smiled. “Are we still going to the campfire, then?” Nico nodded. “Can I… kiss you?”

Nico’s eyes widened. “I don’t-- Not right now. If that’s okay?”

“Of course it’s okay,” Will told him, leaning back and taking Nico’s hands in his own. “We should get going if we want to get decent seats.”

Will pulled Nico to his feet. “What about a kiss on the cheek?”

“Will,” Nico said in a warning tone. 

“Right, of course,” Will said, pulling Nico toward the door. He swooped down and pressed a kiss to the tip of Nico’s nose, immediately apologizing as he pulled back. “I know, I’m sorry, I just-- I’m so happy.”

Nico, cheeks red, smiled up at him. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> if theres any typos please tell me bc i didn't proofread this bc it's too long for my brain to comprehend (18 pages is too much)  
> talk solangelo with me on tumblr at buoyantsaturn my names C.J.


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